Creating my story one observation at a time

A Divided Democracy

bi·par·ti·san (adjective)

of or involving the agreement or cooperation of two political parties that usually oppose each other’s policies

The US has a famously divided political system, the far right standing opposite the far left. However, we are seemingly missing a crucial link – the center. The idea behind the three-branch government (Executive, Legislative, and Judicial) was created to instill a balance of power, ensuring that a dictatorship would be out of reach. However, due to our two-party system, the majority rule party and it’s head (the president) in effect becomes a czar.The two-party system stemmed out of the triangular structure because politicians have learned that cutting others down wins more public favor than speaking about their own merits. Everyone needs ONE ultimate rival. We call this system bipartisanship; however, it often is as partisan as it gets.

Other developed countries have done away with two-party systems because of this constant battle between two sides; it’s as if we can only look at the round world from two angles…absurd. We need to allow different party voices room on the national stage so that the repetitive debate we are all so tired of may change. If someone handed you a gun with one bullet and told you to choose: ‘Shoot your mom or shoot your dad,’ wouldn’t you prefer there be a choice to set the gun down? I can only speak for myself, but in today’s America, this is how extreme the choices seem.

Though we have had several minority parties pop up over the years, they have not gained any traction. Due to our ‘winner takes all’ electoral college system, when minority parties gain any ground at all, they often get blamed for “taking votes” from one main party and handing the election to the other.

The only true way for the USA to become a multiparty government would be to create a proportional representation. In this type of system, each party would receive a certain number of seats in government in accordance to the percentage of votes received in an election. This would be similar to the House of Representatives proportional representation of a state’s population; by taking into account the views of all parties and the voters who stand behind them, we assure that they are being represented in Washington.

HOW DO WE MAKE THIS HAPPEN? I don’t fucking know.

Change of constitution to Parliamentary system? Near impossible

House of Representatives move to proportional representation of parties as well population? How??

This is where I turn to you, readers. What are your suggestions to get to a more compromising government? One in which we do not have to resort to filibusters at every turn and instead create inclusive discourse. Through healthy debate and not arguments that dismiss other viewpoints altogether, we can create a country that considers the beliefs of every US citizen. Is this even possible or am I simply too idealistic?